When building roadways, parking lots and the like, paving machines are used to deposit paving material, such as asphalt, on a paving surface to create a flat, consistent surface over which vehicles may travel. The paving machine typically works with a compactor to create a finished mat surface. The paving machine is generally a self-propelled machine designed to receive, convey, distribute, and partly compact the paving material. Typically, the paving machine receives heated paving material in a hopper positioned at a front of the paving machine, conveys the paving material from the hopper to a rear of the paving machine with conveyors, distributes the paving material along a desired width with an auger, and forms the paving material into a mat with a screed assembly. The mat is further compacted by one or more compactors.
One or more compactors generally follow behind a paver and compact the mat to a desired degree or extent. The compactor may include a drum assembly having a vibratory mechanism. Both amplitude and frequency of vibration may be controlled to establish degree of compaction.
The extent of compaction effort mainly depends on the temperature of the paving material. For example, if sections of the mat are at a lower than preferred temperature, the one or more compactors may have to make additional passes across these sections to ensure sufficient compaction. On the other hand, if sections of the formed mat are at a higher than preferred temperature, compactor operators will have to take caution to avoid over compacting these sections. Therefore, for laying a good finished mat, temperature of the paving material is significant for proper compaction by the screed assembly and thereafter by one or more compactors that follow the paving machine.
Current systems include temperature scanning devices and infrared cameras mounted to the screed assembly to scan and determine the surface temperature of the mat surface formed by the screed assembly. These systems measure the surface temperature of the mat surface laid down by the screed assembly. The surface temperature of the mat surface may be different from the core temperature of the paving material. Further, these systems may be expensive.
US Patent Application Publication No. 20150003914 discloses a temperature sensor configured to determine the temperature of the screed plate. The screed plate has a top surface, a thickness, and an opening in the top surface. The opening extends into the thickness of the screed plate and receives at least a portion of the temperature sensor. The temperature sensor monitors the temperature of the screed plate and based on the temperature of the screed plate a controller adjusts the heating of the screed plate.
However, measuring the temperature of a screed plate may not provide an accurate measurement of the temperature of the paving material that is needed to control the compaction process.